USING TRAM INFRASTRUCTURE TO RECHARGE E-BUSES IN OBERHAUSEN

The public transport operator of the German city Oberhausen (Stadtwerke Oberhausen) is taking part in the European H2020 project Eliptic which aims to show how costs and energy can be saved by electrifying public transport and optimising the use of existing infrastructure.

In Oberhausen, two application cases will showcase how e-buses can use existing electric public transport infrastructure for multi-purpose services – including charging bus batteries. Stadtwerke Oberhausen operates two e-bus lines, each with a battery bus: one e-bus being charged from such a substation located in the tram network, while the other is taking energy directly from the overhead wire. Monitoring and evaluation of these real-data cases will contribute to the implementation as well as the improvement of the technology.

In urban bus systems like in Oberhausen - which is a medium-sized city within the so-called Ruhr Metropolis in the west of Germany - mostly diesel vehicles are currently in operation. To reduce the dependency on fossil fuels and to reduce the emission of among others nitrogen oxide, particulates and noise pollution in urban areas, the public transport operator Stadtwerke Oberhausen GmbH (STOAG) is trying to introduce alternative fuels and propulsion with less negative effects nn the environment. Electric drive is one of the main options.

Another interesting development in Germany is the recent adoption of Faktor 100, a new environmetal programme, by all environment ministers of Germany’s federal states. Target is to to deploy more electric buses in public transport. The name comes from the notion that one electric bus can save emissions equivalent to 100 cars. The plan requests 50m euros from the government in 2018 and 100m euros in each of the following years. This means 250 zero-emission buses could hit German roads next year, followed by 500 vehicles annually from 2019. While public transport providers welcomed the decision, they pointed to producers to offer more and more price-competitive electric buses